be so it is plain there is no need of the Guide we are seeking for and then I doubt after all our searching we shall never be able to find him But there is one Argument above all that there is no such Guide viz. That Christ never Promised There should be one always in his Church And without a Promise from him we can never be certain that there is We know what is pretended in this matter and what Texts are produce for it but after the strictest and most deliberate Enquiry into the meaning of them we can find no evidence of any such Promise nor discern the least shadow or Footstep of a visible Infallible Guide We own indeed that God has Promised the Guidance of his Spirit to all that desire the Knowledg of his Ways but we the rather think that he has not promised any other Infallible Guide than this For what need is there of the Inward Direction of the Spirit in the Search of Truth when we have a Guide at hand that can lead us Infallibly into it and save us the labour of searching after it But did not our Saviour Promise to send his Spirit upon the Apostles and were not they Infallible Guides True but did he Promise to make their Successors in all Ages Infallible too If he did every Successor has an equal Claim And then how comes the Church of Rome to talk of but one Infallible Guidfe since the Death of the Apostles and to Appropriate that extraordinary favour to here self If he did not she must shew us a particular Charter or Promise that Infallibility should never depart from the See of Rome and when she does that we may allow her to be Infallible But supposing that Christ had promised an Infallible Guide it may be convenient to know 2. Whether or no he has given him Authourity to suspend the Judgment of all Christians in matters of Religion This we must say is a distinct Power from Infallibility unless we can imagin that our Saviour and his Apostles tho they were infallible did not know the extent of their Power For 't is plain they did not affect any such Authority or treat their Disciples in this manner but both required them to prove the Truths which they heard Act. 17.11 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. and commended their Ingenuity in proving them by the Scriptures Besides a Guide whose Directions we must blindly follow without examinig the Grounds and Tendency of them seems to be a very improper means of bringing men to Heaven For surely God did design that in the exercise of our Religion we should act like men and not lay aside our Reasonand Judgment as things that are dangerous to our salvation 'T is true not to Judge at all is a certain way not to err but it is a very blind and unlikely way to bring men to the knowledge of the Truth without which their Obedience can never be a Reasonable Service And theresore if any Church or Person under colour of Infallibility shall assume an absolute Authority over the Consciences of men before I resign up my Judgment to them I must desire to be informed not only how they come to be infallible but what Commission they have to oblige me to believe as they please and to strangle my own Sense and Reason if they offer to oppose any Doctrine of theirs tho never so absurd or contradictory to them But suppose still there were Reasons to convince me that there is an infallible Judge and that there ought to be no Judge besides him yet because he cannot be useful to me till I know who he is there is another great Question to be resolved before I can prudently commit my self to him viz. How I may certainly know where to find him And here I meet with one vast Discouragement at the very entrance into this enquiry Namely that the same Church which alone pretends to this Infallible Guide is very uncer tain who he is Some chain Infallibility to St. Peter's Chair and place it in the Person of the Pope But this is the most Interessed Party as depending entirely upon the Pleasure of him whom they call Infallible Others send us to General Councils some of whcih have condemn'd the Pope for an Heretick and contradicted the Decrees of former Councils But then what think we of Oral Tradition Or the Doctrine of the Universal Churcvh conveighed by Father to Son from the Apostles Time down to the Present Age The General consent I confess of the Christian Church so far as it reaches is an excellent means to find out the sense of Scripture But we are not speaking now of Tradition or the Church as a Witness of Truth but of the Authority of any Church or Guide to prescribe a Rule of Faith and Practice by Vertue of an Insallible Assistance This is the thing we are enquiring after and where the Seat of this Authority is and all we can certainly learn hitherto is this That seeing there are so many controversies in the Church of Rome about it it will be a very hard thing to find it there And that in the Judgment of a considerable part of that Church a man may tire himself and be in quest of his Infallible guide all his Days and never come within sight of him at last For suppose he takes the Pope to be the infallible Oracle he is thought to be mistaken by all those that stand for a General council and if he go to a General council he is lost in the opinion of all that declare for single infallibility And the men for Oral tradition think they are all deceived that look for infallibility in any one Person or Party in the Church What must we do now that have so much choice of infallible guides and nothing to determine our choice Many we pick and choose at a venture But that cannot be safe because they have occasion sometimes to lead contrary to one another and therefore cannot be all infakubke and none of them speaks of more infallible guides than one Must we then weigh their Reasons and the Scriptures they produce for their several claims These we have often heard and considered and cannot but admire the confidence of men who pretend to sound the infallibility and other Prerogatives of the Bishop and Church of Rome upon Texts that speak not the least Syllable of them Whereas matters of this importance ought to be exprest in the easiest and plainnest Words that he that runs may read them If not only the Peace and Unity of the Church but every man's salvation depends as our Adversaries must say upon the Right understanding of there Texts we have that confidence in the Goodness of our Saviour that we certainly believe he would not expect we should find out a meaning in therm that by no good Rule of Interpretation can be collected from them And for this Reason we cannot think our selves obliged when any thing is said
to himself and if he be is Just he should be Miserable since he might and would not be Happy For God who had made us Free and Reasonable Creatures is not bound to force us into Happiness against our choice no more than he was bound to Create us at first in a state of Perfect and Unchangeable Happiness Nor does his Justice require of him that he should be Equally Gracious to all Men and put them into the same advantagious Circumstances for the attainment of Eternal Life His giving better Means to one Person than to another is no wrong to him that has enough to bring him to the same Blessed State All that becomes a Faithful Creator is that having given us Being capable of Eternal Happiness and Misery he should not deny us that Measure of Grace without which tho we should do our utmost to please him we must be Miserable And therefore all that is requisite to justifie the Providence of God in this matter is to prove that he gives every man sufficient Power to be Happy and will take an account of him for no more than he really gives him For the first of these 1. That God affords every man sufficient Power to be happy I must desire you to weigh the Argument already suggested for it It is certain that God has planted an Eternal Desire of Happiness in the Heart of Man and that this Desire is the great Principle of Virtue and Obedience to the Will of God and this I think is a good Argument to prove that God does not frustrate this Desire by his meer Will and Pleasure I mean by denying any man that Grace and Assistance which is absolutely necessary to his attainment of it because the consequence of this would be an infinite and undeserved Unhappiness to him which is never to be reconciled to the Rules of Justice and Equity But besides this God allows every man to expect that which is evidently just and fair from him and so far makes him Judge in his own case knowing himself to be infinitely clear in his Dealings with him His appealing to the Common Notionsof men concerning this equity of his Actions towards them and giving them warning to expect an Universal Judgment are very plain Demonstrations of this Truth Come now let us Reason together Isa 1.18 Jer. 2.4 saith the Lord What Iniquity have your Fathers found in me Ezek. 18.25 Is not my way Equal O House of Israel Whence I argue thus We ought not to fasten any thing upon God which evidently contradicts the Natural Notions of Justice and Equity and therefore ought not to charge him with creating men under a necessity of being Eternally Miserable for want of sufficient Power to be Happy because this is a direct contradiction to the Natural and Brightest Notions of Justice and Righteousness What is this but to thrust men into the World only to gain an opportunity to inflict Eternal Torments upon them in the next And if this be fair and just Dealing I desire to know what is that we may have heave to call Gruel and Unjust The greatest Evil we can possibly have any Idea of is that of Eternal Damnation And the Highest Injustice is to inflict the Greatest Evil upon meer Pleasure or which resolves into it for not doing something that was ever Impossible to be done And then to charge God with Damning Men at Pleasure or for what they never had Power to help is to charge the Father of Mercies with Transcendent Cruelty and the Judge of the whole World with the Highest Injustice And I cannot imagine why men that are lovers of Truth and have a tender sence of Gods Honour should not be willing to let fall such a Charge as this rather than own God to be so Good and Just as to allow every man sufficient Grace to do Well and be Happy which is a Thought that sits easie upon the Mind being every way square and sutable to its Natural Notions of the Divine Perfections Whereas the contrary after all endeavours to reconcile it to the Honour of God is a Bold and Staring Contradiction to it After this what need I say That t is natural to suppose that God hath a Paternal Affection to all his Off-spring That he has given every man a Law in his own Breast to guide him to Virtue and Happiness That he shews to every man what is Good and does not expect Impossibilities from any That he gives Common Grace to All and t is certain he gives nothing in vain Whereas all his Grace and Favour to Heathens and Wicked Christians would be utterly in vain if it were not an earnest of Special and Saving Grace supposing them to make the best Improvements of it which are possible for them 2. God will take an account of men only for such Means of Grace as he really gives them In the ay of Judgment no man shall answer for two Talents that received but one The Heathens that have but the single Light of Nature to guide them towards God and Heaven shall not perish for not believing in Christ when they never heard of him So the Apostle tells us Rom. 2.11 12. There is no Respect of Persons with God For as many as have sinned without the Law shall perish without the Law and as many as have sinned in the Law shall be judged by the Law i.e. God will judge the World by a Just and Equitable Rule according to the Means that men have enjoyed and the Opportunities they have had of knowing and obeying his Will and not by any Personal Respects which too often warp and pervert the Judgments of Men. And then the poor Heathen that never had any written Divine Law to direct his Actions Rom. 2.14 15 16. but was led by Nature to do the things contained in the Law shall be tried by the Laws which Nature taught him The Jew by the Law of Moses and the Instructions of the Prophets And the Christian that has far better Means of Salvation than both these shall be judged by the Gospel or Law of Christ And from hence it follows that God will reckon with man at the last day only for their own measure of Grace be it more or less every man shall be accountable to him for so much as he receives from him and no more will he require at his Hands and so doing it is evident that he cannot be injurious to any For God is not obliged to give equal measures of Grace to all men and to exceed what is necessary to bring them to Happiness He did not owe the World a Redeemer or so much as a single Prophet or Messenger from Heaven The whole Covenant of our Redemption was an Act of Pure Sovereign Grace and not the acknowledgment of a Debt the non-payment of which had been the breach of any Rule of Justice and Righteousness In giving men the necessary Means of obtaining his Favour in this and the
Repent time enough to be saved at his last hour For if he may do so we can never convince him that he may not take his liberty the mean while or that there is any necessity of Repenting in haste He may be as wild and frolick as he pleases gratifie every sensual Desire and dance through all the Scenes of a Comical and Voluptuous Life provided he take care when he is glutted with the pleasure of Sinning to Repent once for all and to do no more wickedly when he has neither Time nor Temptation to do it And were this the true and plain meaning of the Gospel I cannot imagine why one ill man should be an Enemy to it I rather think that so soon as ever he came to understand it he would be perfectly reconciled to the whole Doctrine of Christianity for the sake of this Kind Fare-well to the practice of it And I dare appeal to any wicked Christian what ever he thinks of this Opinion whether he does not heartily wish it were true and would not gladly see it confirmed by plain Scripture and Reason Now certainly this is no great Commendation of any Doctrine but rather a just Prejudice against it It being enough to make a good and wise man suspect that it is not sound at bottom because it takes so universally with bad men But let us see what Foundation this Opinion has in Scripture and particularly in this Parable of our Saviour so often cited for it concerning the Labourers that went into the Vineyard about the Eleventh Hour and yet received as good Wages as they that went Early in the Morning and had borne the Heat of the Day And because I desire to speak as home and as plainly to this matter as the Importance of it requires I shall endeavour to shew these two things 1. That this Parable has no relation to the Case of a Late or Death-bed Repentance 2. That there is no other ground of assurance in the Gospel that the Repentance of a Dying Christian after a whole Life spent in Sin and an obstinate violation of his Baptismal Vow and Covenant will secure him of Eternal Salvation But before I enter upon this Task I desire it may be considered That the Controversies concerning the sence of Scripture must be endless and unprofitable unless we agree upon proper and certain Rules to Guide us in the Explication of it And surely we cannot easily think of better in expounding the Parables of the Gospel than first to be strictly careful that we do not set the Gospel at variance with it self or make one Parable clash and interfere with another And then if there be any difficulty in explaining them or it so happens that the words are fairly capable of two or more different Senses the surest way to come to a satisfaction about the true meaning of them is to observe the Occasion our Saviour took to utter them to follow the Thread of his Discourse upon that Occasion and if need be to have recourse to more plain and lightsome Scriptures the sense of which is agreed upon by the generality of the most Learned and Orthodox Christians And by these Rules I doubt not but to make it appear 1. That this Parable of the Labourers has no Relation to the case of a Late or Death-bed Repentance It was certainly another and a very different thing which was intended by it I mean the calling of the Jews and Gentiles into the Church at different Times and in several Ages of the World and not the Repentance of particular Persons at this or that time of their Lives If this can be made out then I think it will sufficiently appear that a Death-bed Repentance has no encouragement from the Text as having no relation to it To make this matter as clear as I can I shall lay down these following Propositions 1st Prop. That by the Lord of the Vineyards hiring Labourers into his Vineyard is meant God's calling men into the Church and entring into a Covenant with them to reward those that should be faithful in his Service The Church we know is frequently compared to a Vineyard both in the Old and New Testament and God is called sometimes the Lord sometimes the Husbandman or Dresser of it Thus Isa 5.4 What could I have done more to my Vineyard saith God that I have not done for it And that this Vineyard was the Church of Israel is expresly said vers 7. For the Vineyard of the Lord of Hosts is the Church of Israel and the men of Judah his pleasant Plant. And in this style our Saviour expresses himself John 15.1 I am the Vine and my Father is the Husbandman and consequently his Church is the Vineyard For since he uses the same comparison which the Jewish Church had been accustomed to his Discourses upon it had been lost upon the Hearers if he had not used it in the same sense which the Prophets did And then if the Vineyard in the Parable be the Church of God his hiring Labourers into it will very naturally signifie his calling men out of the Heathen World to his Peculiar Service and Covenanting with them to Reward their Obedience to him And by consequence 2d Prop. The several hours of hiring Labourers into the Vineyards do import the several General Calls by the which God is pleased to invite men into his Church and Service in different Ages according to the various Dispensations of his Grace and Goodness Thus he called the Jews the Seed of Abraham his Friend betimes in the Morning and agreed with them for their Service in the Covenant which he made with them at Mount Sinai The mean while and many Ages after this the Gentiles stood idle and then in the Fulness of time when the Day was far spent he called them to work in his Vineyard upon the Gracious Terms and Conditions of the Gospel And besides these we may justly expect another Solemn and General Calling of the Jews who left the Vineyard when the Gentiles entred into it excluding themselves through Unbelief And this by the best Light we have from the Gospel seems to be reserved for the close of the Day or the Eleventh Hour in the Parable i.e. to some or other of the last Ages of the World 3d. Prop. The Time of God's Calling men into the Church be it Early or Late makes no difference in the reward they shall finally receive for their faithful and diligent Service to him For so it is expresly said that the Labourers that were hired about the Eleventh Hour received equal Wages with those that were long before them in the Vineyard and had done a great deal of their Masters Business while they were wretchedly Idle and Unserviceable to him And hence how readily does this Truth offer it self to the apprehension of every candid and judicious Inquirer into the meaning of this Parable viz. that the Gentiles who came late into the Church of God in comparison of